Pressure Cookers

Anybody have much experience with these?

I'm looking into buying one for a Christmas present, and have no idea about them (besides they always break, fall apart, or not work during those cooking show speed rounds!)

One of my co-workers mentioned she loved hers, but it was a present and she has no idea what brand or anything it was. Said she can't imagine it needing to be anything specialty brand or anything.

I'm curious as to what size I should be looking into, any specific brands, or if you have one that you like/dislike?  (My co-worker mentioned you can pretty much cook an artichoke from pot to perfection in 10 minutes, instead of the 45 minutes plus the time it takes for a watched pot to boil that it normally takes.  I was sold, haha.)  Or even what stores they sell at?  From my googling this morning it looks like Presto ($35-$100) and Fagor ($80-$160) seem to be the brands that come up most.  I don't even know if this is something where "cheap and easy" will still get the job done, or if I should look into a bit more quality to make sure the job gets done right.

(Last year I bought a set of ...really expensive knives... but it makes a WORLD of a difference -- we can cut through an ear of corn like it's nothing, ridiculously worth it -- so if an extra $50 will make a huge difference, I'll pay it. heck of a lot cheaper than the knives were anyway.)

Do you usually boil a lot of things to make them tender?  Pressure cookers usually used to make tough cuts of meat tender in a shorter period of time.  

I don't usually buy cheaper cuts and need to have it cooked in a hurry.  I use a slow cooker to tenderize and I don't have to worry about it.  I have 1 but it freaks me out to use it. It was a gift too from my parents.   I've used it once but the need is generally not there.  I generally don't cook artichokes.  I used to but its a pain in the butt to eat and my kids don't like them.  If you feel you have a use for them, I'd wait for a sale.  Probably one with a pressure gauge would be best.  Mine doesn't have one.  I see them in department stores and usually sold at kitchen store that sell pots. 

Knives are worth the investment. I bought my husband a Shun knife last Christmas, definately worth the $200 price tag on the 8" chef's knife.   

I suggest a Seb Clipso, they work great and they have an easy opening/closing system. You can wash it in the dishwasher too (apart from the lid of course). For the size, it depends for how many people you're cooking. For 4 people, get a 8 liters cooker, for less 6 liters.

I recommend you spend a little on the pressure cooker, get one from a good brand. Be careful about the cheap ones, they're not as effective, and you can't always trust the silicone seal to stay waterproof, which kills the purpose of a pressure cooker.

The pressure cooker is great, you can really cut down the cooking time of all your vegetables, and once it's cooking you can pretty much forget about it and do something else in the kitchen.

yeah we cook a lot of veggies.  not so much meat tendering since he loves his grill, but we eat a ton of veggies.  It's just the two of us, but I'll probably get an 8 Lt since, well, artichokes are big, and there's friends who come by often enough that a meal for 4 still does happen a couple times a month.

Is seb clipso a french brand?  I tried to find it online and only came across french sites.  One showed a picture, but didn't really have a store or price for me to look at.

The pressure cooker is actually TFal which is a division of SEB group and its a French company.  I did find some stuff about it but no $$

So which one did you end up getting, Annelle?

Originally Posted by Annelle /img/forum/go_quote.gif

yeah we cook a lot of veggies.  not so much meat tendering since he loves his grill, but we eat a ton of veggies.  It's just the two of us, but I'll probably get an 8 Lt since, well, artichokes are big, and there's friends who come by often enough that a meal for 4 still does happen a couple times a month.

Is seb clipso a french brand?  I tried to find it online and only came across french sites.  One showed a picture, but didn't really have a store or price for me to look at.

Click to expand...

Yep, pretty much traditional brand i'd say. In terms of price i can say they cost around 100-150€ depending on the size.

I did some online research.

Found out a few things:

Most recipies are for 6-quarts, although there are uses for 4-quart and 8-quart.

You only want to fill a pressure cooker up to 2/3 so size may be a little deceiving and you want a bigger pot than what you'd normally think for a cooking job

Stainless steel is better than aluminum (aluminum is cheaper, but can react to acids in food changing the flavor)

I found this site that gave reviews based on a lot of other reviews:

http://www.consumersearch.com/pressure-cookers/best-pressure-cookers

I think there was a second site that I saw that also used a lot of customer reviews and personal reviews for, but I think the above one seemed to be fairly unbiased. (I think I have the link on my history at work but I can't find it here)

I think I'm going for the 8-quart Fagor Duo.  When comparing them it said that the duo was the only one in the Fagor series that had two pressure settings, and that many others also only had one pressure setting. (I know I read this part somewhere, but I can't find the site so I'm thinking I got most of my info from that site and then saw that it was also #1 ranked on this one) Seems to be $109.99 everywhere.  I was going to wake and do the Black Friday sale at Bed Bath and Beyond (20% off entire purchase starting at 5am morning sales only) but when my alarm went off I felt that sleep was worth an extra $20-30 >.<

I'm going to try to see if I can find out when Macy's Friends and Family sale is, since they sell it at their home store, and I think it was around this time of year.  It's also a 20% off deal but I just have to figure out what day it is so i can go in and buy it then.

edit: I love google search.  it's 25% off, free shipping, and this week. http://www.macys.com/campaign/friendsFamily.jsp

Wow!  I didn't think they were so expensive. That SEB/Tfal unit was $300+  I think. 

Are you just cooking vegetables with it?  I microwave a lot of my veggies.

He doesn't like the microwave lol.  I love artichokes and he loves brussel sprouts though, and I don't know how well those would work in the microwave.  We do steamed mixed veggies a lot too.

But I'm sure he'd be able to play around with the whole meat thing especially since he's been complaining a lot about long days followed by an hour of cooking, a half hour of eating, clean up, and then it's 10pm by the time we settle down to do anything before bed.  (Sometimes he doesn't get home till closer to 8) I'm sure it'll help speed at least a few things up.

Yeah the Presto that had the best reviews was around $65, but it only has the one setting, and whenever compared with the duo, the ratings places liked the duo better.  I figure for the long run it's better to get the higher quality and multiple settings than the cheaper one that might break easier.

I really don't put too much weight on the more $ = better quality thing. I will pay more for something that has proven itself to have better quality.

I saute the brussels sprouts (cut in half) with garlic.  It's way tastier than boiled...way way way tastier.  I will actually eat them and more than the token 1 brussels sprout at Christmas. *yuck*

I just gave up my old food processor for a Kitchenaid one.  It's really heavy and the functionality is not quite to my expectations.  I miss my old one /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> 

I pre-cook many vegetables in the microwave.  Beets and potatoes take too long when baked in the oven so I nuke them for 15 minutes and then I put them in oven with the roast for 15 minutes and noone knows it was preheated before being roasted in the oven.  

Here's an article on the preservation of antioxidants for vegetables microwaved vs boiled.  The article says that boiling and pressure cooking causes the greatest loss in antioxidants capacity. 

http://www.qualityhealth.com/news/microwaving-beats-boiling-cooking-most-veggies-14303

Microwaving beats boiling for cooking most veggies NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The best way to cook vegetables while preserving their antioxidant powers depends on the veggie, new research from Spain shows.

Microwaving and griddling were generally best, while boiling and pressure-cooking tended to be the worst, but there were exceptions to these rules, Dr. A. M. Jimenez-Monreal of the University of Murcia and colleagues found.

"The results of this study serve as a database providing information on the effects of different cooking methods on the antioxidant potential of vegetables, and might encourage the food industry to recommend particular cooking methods to help maintain the antioxidant properties of vegetables that we eat," the researchers suggest in the Journal of Food Science.

They looked at how the ability of 20 different vegetables to neutralize or "scavenge" three types of free radicals was affected by boiling, pressure-cooking, baking, microwaving, griddling, or frying.

Effects varied widely among the different foods, the researchers found. Only one vegetable - artichoke -- maintained all of its antioxidant punch no matter how it was cooked.

Some veggies actually had increased antioxidant capacity after being cooked in certain ways, for example asparagus after boiling and eggplant after frying.

Most cooking methods preserved the antioxidant capacity of green beans, beets and garlic. Every cooking method but boiling increased the antioxidant activity of celery.

In general, microwaving or griddling -- heating the vegetable on a heavy skillet without oil -- did the best job of preserving antioxidant activity, Jimenez-Monreal and colleagues found. Corn was the exception, losing roughly 35 percent of its free-radical scavenging capacity after microwaving.

Boiling and pressure cooking generally caused the greatest loss of antioxidant capacity, with frying being a little better than these methods and a little worse than microwaving or griddle-cooking. "In short, water is not the cook's best friend when it comes to preparing vegetables," the researchers say.

They conclude that more research is needed to see how different cooking methods influence a vegetable's antioxidant activity after consumption.

SOURCE: Journal of Food Science, April 2009.

The last Seb pressure cooker takes that into account and you have different settings according to what you're cooking o nthe lid. Of course it's also the most expensive of the line.

You can definitely microwave veggies. If i don't cook a lot usually i just microwave them, at least like Diva said to precook them. My mother also found a container that cooks or heats the food according to the setting, we tested it a few times and it works just as well.

Man! At $300+, I hoped it washed, peeled and cut the veggies too...

I have only used the pressure cooker to tenderize pork ribs before putting them in the oven with bbq sauce.  I've never used it for anything else and I only did it once.  I forgot I even had one until Annelle put up this post. 

What have you used yours for (for all that own one)?

(sorry this post was typed out over the course of researching so I kind of change my point throughout but I figured I'd post as is anyway)

Two of the people at my work own the Presto line, I haven't found anybody that owns the Fagor one yet.  I'm starting to wonder if it's more just me saying "I researched and bought the best! (within price reason)" versus something he'd still be happy with using.

Some things I know about the duo is that there are two settings (presto only has one) which allows for more flexibility (less pressure or more pressure to adjust time or amount of pressurization), and the duo comes with a steamer tray (not sure if presto has one or not)

now I'm trying to get a visual of the size, because I've only been shopping online and I can't find dimensions.  One presto's site, the 8 looks kind of gigantic.  (8 quarts = 2 gallons of milk. That's a pretty big size)

This website I found (http://missvickie.com/workshop/meet-standard.htm) says 15 psi is the standard for most recipes because when pressure cookers were first invented, they only came in 15 psi.
It has a chart that lists 8-8.5 psi as the bottom of "medium" pressure which is used for fish, shrimp, delicate seafoods, tender crisp veggies, steamed rice, puddings, custards.

4-quart: Good for making one side course for a family or a whole meal recipe for 1-2 people.

6-quart: Accommodate most families 2-4

8-quart: Good for larger families and large batches of stock. (suggests that even a single person can make use of an 8-quart since anyone might have time when they're cooking larger things like roasts, whole chickens, ribs, etc)

I think I might go with the 6-quart one instead then (the two gallons of milk is giving me a decent idea on size I think), since it is $80 instead of $110 ($60 with the friends and family sale), which puts it close to the Presto price, but still has the lower setting.   Everywhere I go look up pressure cookers, Fagor always shows up, as basically the best non-super expensive one.  I think he'll be excited about the idea of being able to cook seafood in it too, which is an additional argument for the lower setting.  Best of both worlds!

Also gives me some extra cash for some fun stuff too /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I'm curious to know what seafood you'd cook in a pressure cooker? 

*shrug* not sure.

found this:

http://www.fagoramerica.com/my_fagor/common_cooking_times ("low" is the duo's 8psi setting here)

  Approximate Cooking Time (Minutes)

Pressure Setting

Clams

2 - 3

Low

Crabs

2 - 3

Low

Lobster, 1 1/2 - 2 lbs.

2 - 3

Low

Mussels

2 - 3

Low

Scallops

1 - 2

Low

Shrimp

1 - 2

Low

Fish, whole, gutted

5 - 6

Low

Fish, soup or stock

5 - 6

High

Those are cook times once the water boils, right?  Aside from the lobster and crab, it doesn't take any more time to boil the shrimp, mussels, scallops or clams in a regular pot full of boiling water.  At least you can use that pressure cooker like a regular pot then.  It cost me $80 for a 18quart S/S stock pot so if you can use it double duty then its great. It was for a huge lobster feast we had last year.  A friend of my husband had sent us 3 cases of Atlantic lobster (45 lobsters) at 3 different sizes.  We've not really had lobster since and we still have about 10 in the freezer even after we had given away 1 case to my parents and sister to split. 

I know pressure can force any sort of stock flavors to enter the foods it is cooked into. without experience I can't really tell how it works with these though.

But one of my co-workers said she's only used the pressure lid twice since she's owned hers (although she said her mom used hers all the time), but she uses the pot itself all the time because it's super heavy duty.

I double checked our pots at home...found one that had a size marking, and it was one of our two biggest pots (pretty much only gets used when we really need a huge pot). 6-quarts.  So I figure the 8 quart one would just be a huge pot that'd take up space instead of one that's just "big"

For $60 I think it's a good deal, and I bought it last night /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> (Along with a few other things at 25% off lol)

I think in terms of seafood, you'll run the risk of overcooking them if it is really a difference of a minute or 2.  I don't really boil any of my seafood other than lobster and crab.  The shellfish I will cook with some aromatics so that the juices join in rather than get thrown away.

lol, well worst case scenario, i'll have a bomb artichoke maker haha.  Well, i'll let you guys know how well the purchase turns out after christmas